Surprised comments are so negative. I think it's a great thing to expand - the military can be an excellent career path, and this allows more people to take it should they choose.
I know many 40 somethings in way better shape than most 20 somethings. And all things considered, if I were someday somehow sent off to war, I'd much rather be surrounded by the former assuming equivalent fitness.
Becoming an E-1 at age 40 isn't a "career path", it's a last resort for somebody who for whatever reason can't make more than $30K/year with the skills they've gained over the last 25 years, and for whom having functioning knees is less important than needing the money.
So they should just age out in poverty and die? Such people exist. To be clear, I'm 1000% against anything resembling a draft, but if an older person wants to, why stop them? A guy in my brother's medical doctor graduation class was 46 years old. Good thing nobody explained to him it was too late and he failed already.
In all seriousness, I do agree about the functioning knees part. But as long as it's voluntary, I don't see the downside.
You referred to joining the US military as an E-1 at the age of 42 as a career path. As an Army brat, I can tell you that it absolutely is not. At that age, it absolutely is a job of last resort.
I like how the options are "age out/die" or "be part of our disgusting military machine", no other options; people have no value unless they've already got money or can risk their blood.
Surely we can think of SOME option better than either of those?
They had 40 years of functioning knees, but it didn't get them to a place where army wages or army housing looks good. If the army breaks their knees, maybe they can get service related disability.
Why not just join ICE? The acts you might have to commit there are probably less bad than what the military gets up to, and you don't get sent overseas?
Many people look for purpose and impact in their careers.
If one has impact in the military, what purpose is it serving under current administration and leadership? It's a hard sell from an ethical perspective.
Jobs that feel purposeless is a common complaint but actively serving evil?
Are you admonishing people for not being selfish and making decisions which benefit themselves even if it puts them in a position where they can't say no to wronging someone else?
What does this even mean? "If you just ignore the fact that your job is murdering people for no reason, the benefits are great!" Why, exactly, should people "disassociate" that?
You are asking whether someone should not have picked the military career if it was the best fit for them, just because you are personally morally against what they do?
That's why i dont confound the military with the political aparatus's directing of said power. Because the military isn't murdering people for no reason - they are following (in the case of the west) a elected official's policy (which you are very welcome to dislike and oppose, as i do as well).
The negativity isn’t anti-military service. It’s because this specific expansion at this particular time for this current administration is all very ridiculous.
I think most people still are in support of the idea if military service even if that job may entail death.
However you choose to look at it, military service is still widely respected as a duty to the nation and a place were patriotic sentiments exist.
I’m not debating the right or wrong of it, but it just is so. I’m pretty sure the entire history of militaries have been full of people enlisting to die and kill on behalf of some random politician they don’t necessarily agree with. There’s nothing particularly notable happening differently.
But Trump being the clown he is, this is laughable.
Yeah just think of how great it would've been to serve in the past decades. Oh wait you'd still end up killing people in the Mideast - half way around the world, and in turn getting killed by them, all in endeavors that ultimately make the world a worse and less safe place. And that certainly includes America.
You're wrong. The girl's school was hit by multiple Tomahawks as video evidence shows. The US Navy is the only service capable of firing Tomahawks. The root cause is DoD intelligence folks failed to get recent surveillance on the girl's school near a former IRGC building before adding it to the target list. It was probably a target passed along from Mossad but no one in the US kill chain did any due-diligence that they're supposed to do. Furthermore, offensive weapons release by a drone or ship requires an officer to give the final order.
I know many 40 somethings in way better shape than most 20 somethings. And all things considered, if I were someday somehow sent off to war, I'd much rather be surrounded by the former assuming equivalent fitness.